CIT Accomplishments and Plans - Computing at Cornell - Cornell ...

18
Giving Campus Options
for VPN Departmental Groups
cit.cornell.edu/services/vpn
The campus Virtual Private Network
(VPN) service is available to any faculty,
staff, student, affiliate, or visitor with
a sponsored NetID . It allows users
to connect securely to the campus
network and access campus services
online from anywhere .
The departmental VPN service is
an outgrowth of the existing VPN . A
department can have a small pool
of campus-only IP space that is tied
exclusively to a community of users
they define . A department using the
departmental VPN service can more
carefully control remote access to their
networks or IT assets .
By providing a higher level of
security for remote access to local
resources, a departmental VPN
can help ease concerns around
telecommuting, which may broaden
support for this practice, including in
the event of any emergency, asking
staff to work from home instead of
coming in to campus .
Now that the development of the
departmental VPN service is complete,
consideration is being given to an SSL
based VPN service that will allow you to
access VPN via a browser over the web .
Providing an
Active Directory Service
The effort to develop a campus Active
Directory service was undertaken as a
component of the Exchange project
to provide a foundation for messaging
services (campus email and calendaring),
and provide a centralized service for
campus units to manage their users
and computer services without having
to support their own Active Directory
instance .
Active Directory is an enabling
technology/service that is a necessary
component for Exchange . Once a
centralized Active Directory is fully
deployed, it can serve as the foundation
for many other campus services such
as desktop management, filesharing
services, and application authorization
based on group membership .
Originally the project was initiated in
response to requests from campus units
for a central Active Directory service .
When a decision was made to deploy
Exchange email and calendaring services
for faculty and staff, Active Directory was
folded into the project . Right now, it is
vital that we ensure we are delivering
the components of the Active Directory
service that are part of rolling out
Exchange .
Eventually most campus users will
interact with Active Directory in one way
or another, although it will be “in the
background,” supporting a wide range of
computing services (printing, filesharing)
and applications .
The project is currently underway with
support for the Exchange deployment as
the highest priority . In 2010 we will offer
the Active Directory service to campus
units who wish to join, either to avoid the
cost of deploying their own instance or
to get out of the business of supporting
their own service .
Providing Telecommuting
Information to Campus
Telecommuting has long been part
of our daily work lives at Cornell, but CIT
also recognized that the campus would
benefit from additional information
about telecommuting as members of the
community contemplated how to continue to
do business and teach in the face of an event
like a widespread illness or an emergency
closure of campus .
We developed and published three
guides designed to be useful for everyday
telecommuting or remote teaching, as well
as more extended periods of telecommuting
that might occur because of a campus
emergency .
▪ A Telecommuting Guide for Cornell
Faculty and Staff is for all employees
and provides guidance on everything
from Internet Service Providers in the
Ithaca area, to tips on at-home computer
and Internet security, to how to choose
between web, video or telephone
conferencing for remote meetings . The
guide is available at cit.cornell.edu/services/
guides/telecommute/facstaff/ .
▪ Teaching Remotely and Distance
Learning Support describes how to
create an online lecture and how to use
chat, discussion board, and web-based
collaboration tools in connection with
distance teaching and learning . This
information is available at confluence.cornell.
edu/display/FSSDOC/Distance+Learning+Support .
▪ The Telecommuting Guide for IT
Professionals and their Leadership poses
many questions and issues that campus
units might want to consider as they
position employees to work successfully
from home . It also provides links to
resources available to this group . The
guide is available at
cit.cornell.edu/services/guides/telecommute/it/ .